Item Guide
Introduction So you got the ability to craft and use items now, but it isn't really clear how to proceed at this point. This guide aims to give you an idea what to expect and what your choices are. As most things regarding items are random: cost for crafting new items, and progress in that crafting and in upgrading items and what items you get; it's actually impossible to go an optimal way. And in the end you will always reach the goal of having everything (useful) at legendary quality, so there is no way to screw up, it just may take you longer then it would have been had you made different choices. The crafting resources in this guide will often referred to simply as "dust". Crafting new items, or upgrade the ones you have? This is your main choice when it comes on how to proceed with items. At least until you have crafted all items you can craft, then it becomes "which items to upgrade first?". And the answer to this question may surprise you: You should upgrade every common (grey) item you get to uncommon (green). ''' But why? Glad you asked. Upgrading items seems expensive and doesn't give much progress, whereas crafting a new items fills the progress-bar quite nicely, you can use all your dust and you get a new and maybe even better item then you already have. But there is a different progression bar hidden in plain sight, which fills much faster by upgrading items, then by crafting new ones. It's your crafting-level. And to make the most out of the dust you have, you want to get your crafting level as high as possible. Every crafting level increases the progress you make in upgrading further items and crafting new items by 5% (additive). But that alone wouldn't be reason enough. The other reason is hidden in the Items-Page. The amount of crafting-exp you get is completely independent of the costs you have to pay to progress in upgrading items or crafting new ones! The only thing it cares about is the percent-progress you made. And upgrading items is 6.06 times worth more experience then crafting new items, while crafting new items only progresses five times as much! Together with the fact that you have to pay on average 1200 dust for one click to craft a new item and upgrading a item costs usually around 100 to 300 dust per click, you can get much more crafting experience by upgrading your items, then by crafting new ones. '''Doing this consequently will give you around 6 crafting-levels or 30% (additive) more then just getting new items one after the other! Further strategy Upgrading every item you get to uncommon means you have stronger bonus from your item-set, but also can mean you don't have some important items you may want and items don't need all colours of the crafting resources in the same amount, so you may have an imbalance. So when should you abandon ship and either start concentrating on crafting new items, or upgrade items further than uncommon? Upgrading items further than uncommon should be done in two cases: You think it's cheap in terms of dust, so you use it as an experience boost. Or you can profit quite a bit from the next level(s) of the item and thus progress faster in the game. The more specialized you play, the faster that second point comes into play. But there are also some items that are useful for nearly every play style. Never hesitate to upgrade further, if you have a good reason for it. Regarding an imbalance in the different colours of crafting resources you may want to either use that surplus to upgrade items that need that dust, to convert it into crafting-experience. Or you wait until Trade Week comes around and convert it into useful colours of crafting resources. To go exclusively for new items to get the important ones you still miss or just to finally have them all I would advice you to wait until you reached at least crafting-level 10. The later you abandon upgrading, the faster you will progress in the long run, but getting an important item can mean immediate progress in the present. Level 10 is the point where you get a new item rather consistently every two crafting-attempts. And you will only get a few levels higher if you proceed normally. Strategy even further down the road Once you have an idea what your final items are and you're ready to upgrade them to legendary it is probably best to upgrade them all first to blue and then bring them to legendary, then to have them all at green and bring them to legendary one after the other, as going to blue is still rather cheap, but gives a nice boost, and having them at legendary gives, thanks to the ability to enchant the items, quite a bigger boost then having them at epic. Progress restricted by crafting Paragon-Levels: There are some Paragon-Levels which are restricted by your crafting-progress, but besides Level 20, they shouldn't be huge road bocks if you follow this guide: Level 13 (unlock 5 items): Is easy if you do Research-Trials. Which you definitely should. Level 14 (have 4 uncommon quality items): Should be no problem, especially if you follow this guide Level 20 (have 2 epic-items): Can be done by getting "Unique-quality" items, but that isn't reliable. The faster way is usually to upgrade one or two itms to epic. Look further down to see which items those should be. Level 31 (have 6 legendary-quality items): Most if not all of those 6 items should be "Unique-quality" items. It isn't unusual to have legendary items at this point, but having 6 uniques is realistic. Level 38 (have 90 uncommon items): Good thing you followed this guide, right? If not, just upgrade the missing items. Level 42 (have 25 legendary items): The sets for your chosen T2 class should be legendary or nearly there. Level 53 (have 50 legendary items): Upgrading items to get more crafting exp gets you there or you play Deso and still upgrade your sets. Level 59 (have 75 legendary items): Same as Level 53. Unlocking Abolisher: Abolisher needs 8 epic-items, which usually is a lot at the myst-ranges his other requirements become doable. But he is also a very item-dependent class, so I would advice you to ignore him for the time being and once you naturally get the 8 epic-items to unlock him and do his achievements. If you already struggle to get the 8 epic-items, it's very unlikely you will get any profit from playing him anyway. Special and noteworthy Items Some items are widely used, others can be really powerful in the right circumstances, having a huge influence on the way you play. This list isn't necessarily complete and will also not list unique items, as those are meant to be special and thus would all fall into this category. But instead give you an idea what may be useful to further upgrade. Widely used items The Falconer's Trust set, as it makes pet-leveling much faster The Nether's Embrace set, as it allows for much higher void mana The power Armor set, as it buffs the two most used spell types: Incantations and Evocations. Empowering hand-guards are also the cheapest item to upgrade in the game. Casque of Learning , Endless Pouches, The great Journey, and Hollow Eye Pendant as they buff character-experience earned, allowing for a higher character level. Game changing items Every Unique-Item in the game, so I won't list them all here. Frosty Ring, for making incantation-spells cast much faster, allowing to stack those casts much higher. Bite Sleeves, giving 75 Empathy to allow to wear the falconers set with much less investment of attribute points. Artificier's Shoulderpads, because it allows for faster crafting resources gathering, many consider this to be top priority to upgrade to legendary. Perfected Kata Bracers, for those classes that have a charging spell that's part of the buildup. Category:Guide